Today I would like to share something I read from Bill Gothard B.A., M.A., Ph.D.Institute in Basic Life Principles Oak Brook, Illinois. Bill is founder and president of the
Institute in Basic Life Principles, a nonprofit corporation dedicated to serving youth and families through God-ordained leaders.
After 15 years of working with inner-city gangs, church youth groups, high school clubs, youth camps, and families in crisis, Bill wrote his master’s thesis on a youth program that eventually led to seven Biblical, non-optional principles of life which, when followed, will result in harmonious relationships in all areas of life.
As a result of applying the principles taught in these seminars to practical needs, the Institute has been able to serve public schools, juvenile court systems, prisons, and business and community leaders. It has become an international organization with training centers in the United States and other countries.
The work of the Institute involves a home-education program, a law school, an accelerated learning program, and over 60 other ministries, including juvenile rehabilitation programs, two orphanages, and the Air Land Emergency Resource Team (ALERT).
Bill Gothard received his B.A. (1957) and M.A. (1961) degrees from Wheaton College and, a Ph.D. (2004) degree from Louisiana Baptist University.
Bill has a daily e-mail program he calls Daily Sucess and this is an excerpt from today's e-mail:
As the Body of Christ, we are a corporate temple of God. Paul states, “Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (II Corinthians 6:16). Furthermore, every believer is also an individual temple. To the individual, Paul writes, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (I Corinthians 3:16).
As a living temple of God, a believer’s life is to be characterized by prayer. The same type of worship that was conducted in the Temple can now be carried out in the temples of our bodies.
In the days of the Temple on Mount Zion, the worshipers were to enter His gates with thanksgiving and enter His courts with praise. (See Psalm 100:4.) Today we are to speak to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our hearts to the Lord. (See Ephesians 5:19.)
Before entering the holy place, the people offered their sacrifices and washed their hands at the laver by the door. We are to offer the sacrifices of praise and cleanse our hands and purify our hearts as we draw near to God. (See Hebrews 13:15 and James 4:8.)
Inside the holy place were three items: the candlesticks, which represented the light of God’s Word; the showbread, which represented the living Word of God; and the continual incense, which represented the day-and-night prayers of believers.
The most holy place contained the Ark of the Covenant. Only the high priest was allowed to enter this part of the Temple. Now, as believers, we can come boldly to God’s throne of grace because of the blood sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. (See Hebrews 4:16.)
Every believer has the glorious liberty to worship: “Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God … in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord …” (Ephesians 2:19–21). Let’s purpose to be a dynamic house of prayer for God!
Wow! Imagine, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit! God dwells in us corporately and individually. Individually in measure and corporately without measure. Together, we are the body of Christ. The manifestation of God on the earth. We are the salt. We are the light. Because He lives so do we.
My desire today is to apply faith to the Word of God as it relates to this teaching! That I may apprehend that for which I was apprehended of God!
Grace and Peace,
Ed
